Young People At Risk Strategy 2017-19 Contents

Foreword 4 Our vision 6 Purpose 7 Why do we need a YPAR Strategy? 7 How will this Strategy make a difference? 9 Who is this Strategy for? 10 LSCB Mission and Values 11 Governance 12 Priorities and Proposed Actions 13 Training and Development 14 Conclusion 14

Further Information Foreword

Working together to ensure children and young people feel safe and are safe in Lambeth

This is Lambeth Safeguarding Children’s Board’s (LSCB) strategy to support, help and protect children and young people at risk of a range of what are often termed ‘contextual’ forms of abuse, including child sexual exploitation (CSE), those who may be involved in violent crime and/or gangs and/or ‘country lines’, or of radicalisation. It embodies the determination of all LSCB agencies to have a more joined up and effective strategic and operational response to the complex, diverse and significant needs of children and young people affected by these issues.

The strategy and implementation plan is organised around four core components, namely:

- Prevention
- Identification
- Help and Protection
- Disruption

The LSCB has developed this strategy in response to the powerful and often disturbing evidence that too many children and young people in Lambeth are facing unacceptable levels of risk. This has significant consequences in terms of their safety, physical and mental health along with their ability to thrive and enjoy their lives. It also has significant and troubling consequences for their families and for the communities in which they live.

This is an important and challenging strategy. It is important because of how profoundly these issues affect the lives of many children and young people in Lambeth every day. It is challenging because it requires everyone to work differently and to take very seriously the risks faced by a significant number of children and young people. Most importantly it means that we must and can never give up on these children because their problems and issues seem intractable or because they do not seem to want to engage with services. The strategy is, in many respects, a call to action, mirroring the commitment of statutory and third sector organisations in Lambeth to work differently to help, protect and support children and young people. The strategy will only make a difference, however, if the voices and experiences of children, young people and their families percolate all aspects of the work.

The leadership of all LSCB organisations have given their full support and commitment to this strategy.

We now all need to work well together, across both statutory and third sector agencies, to realise the strategy’s vision and ambition so that it has a discernible and real impact on the lives of children, young people, families and communities.

Andrew Christie Independent Chair, Lambeth Safeguarding Children Board

Annie Hudson Strategic Director, Lambeth Children’s Services and YPAR Sub Group Chair Our vision

This 2 year strategy sets out the ambition and resolve of Lambeth Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) to deliver our vision for children and young people in Lambeth to be free from the risk of:

- child sexual exploitation (CSE)
- missing from home, care or education,
- serious youth violence (SYV)
- involvement with gangs
- involvement with ‘county lines’
- radicalisation

These are challenging ambitions and we will only achieve them by giving unrelenting focus on the needs and lived experiences of children and young people. In drawing up this strategy the LSCB has drawn extensively on:

- Knowledge of need and current operational and strategic practice in Lambeth, including what is working well and what is not.

- Resources and guidance from a range of public bodies, including Ofsted, DfE, Research in Practice.

- What children and young people in Lambeth have told us about their experiences and needs.

- Evidence of best practice in other authorities.

- Knowledge of published evidence and publically available research of ‘what works’. Purpose of this Strategy

- To set out a joint mission and set of ambitions for the LSCB, describing clearly our values, approach and expectations of one another

- To provide the basis of a detailed work plan for the LSCB, describing how agencies will work together, in the short and longer term, to secure improvements in the quality of practice, in systems and our overall analysis and understanding of these issues

- To support a more coherent and joined up approach to the commissioning and delivery of services, securing better outcomes for children and young people at risk

Why do we need a YPAR Strategy?

There is much and at times very distressing but powerful evidence about how too many children and young people in Lambeth are facing unacceptable levels of risk in their lives, and all too often this has significant consequences in terms of their safety, physical and mental health along with their ability to thrive and enjoy their lives. Children and young people may be at risk of sexual or criminal exploitation and violence, of going missing from home or care, being involved in ‘county lines’ (moving and supplying drugs and/or money) or from the risks of radicalisation.

Whilst the needs of some children are being addressed and there is much strong practice in Lambeth, we know that, for a range of reasons, we are not able to help and protect some children effectively. The Ofsted 2015 inspection of children’s social care services highlighted the need for significant improvement.

Our strategic and operational knowledge about prevalence and factors that can render young people to be at significant risk is of uneven quality. Similarly, we do not consistently collate and analyse local knowledge about what is happening to young people. We need to make sure that this is comprehensive, rooted in evidence and helps us to better support and protect children and young people.

Despite everyone’s recognition of the priorities of these groups of young people, too often differing agency priorities and perspectives create fragmented, partial and crisis driven responses rather than those that are joined up, evidence based and effective. We know too that it is important that statutory and third sector organisations need to work more effectively together to support these groups of children.

The depth and complexity of the needs of many young people, together with the fact that they can be reluctant to engage with professionals, can leave professionals feeling anxious, fearful and unconfident in their practice.

Pathways through and into services are overly complicated and there is insufficient clarity and understanding about the types of intervention that will help, protect and build young people’s resilience. Our capacity and ability to monitor both prevalence and the quality of our responses has not been as robust as it needs to be; it is difficult therefore to judge the impact of what we are doing to support and protect children and young people.

A range of strategic initiatives have been implemented over the past few years to better help and protect children and young people in Lambeth. Progress has been made but there is a need to address these issues in the ‘round’. Instead effort has often been focussed on a single issue of concern when in reality children and young people’s lives and needs are much more connected. The LSCB determined therefore that it should produce one overarching Lambeth strategy at the same time as recognising the importance of addressing particular challenges connected with specific types of ‘risky behaviours’.

Account has been taken of the national context and best practice elsewhere (including reports by the Children’s Commissioner, DfE guidance, Research in Practice). We have benefitted greatly from the input and expertise of a wide range of partner agencies who have contributed to the LSCB youth at risk task and finish group. In the next phase of this work, we need to develop strategies for engaging with children, young people and wider communities in the borough.

The strategy has been shaped by the input and expertise of a wide range of partner agencies and we recognise that, as we implement the strategy, the LSCB must develop an effective approach to engaging with children, young people and wider communities across Lambeth.

**How will this Strategy make a difference?**

This strategy has formed the basis for a comprehensive 2 year action plan which aims to:

- Enhance the outcomes for children and young people at risk children and make sure that their voices shape all we do
- Support front line practitioners and managers to engage well with young people so that they are able to help and protect them better
- Enhance the role of the schools and the voluntary and community sector in preventing and supporting children and young people exposed to risks.
- Give parents and carers confidence that LSCB agencies are working well with families and are doing all that they can to help and protect children and young people.
- Facilitate a comprehensive approach to preventing and reducing the likelihood of risk and harm
- Establish and embed cohesive and coherent inter agency working Who is this strategy for?

The focus of this strategy is therefore on how best, given the need, demographics and resources in Lambeth, agencies should work together to:

Throughout this document we use the term ‘children and young people’ to describe children and young people from aged 10 – 18 years who may be at risk of CSE, serious youth violence, gangs, county lines, missing from home, care or education, or radicalisation.

The strategy also needs to encompass young people up to the age of 25 years when issues about serious youth violence, involvement in gangs and/or with ‘county lines’ are involved.

We also recognise that risk factors can emerge before the age of 10 and as such this strategy needs to complement and influence the overarching Children and Young People’s Plan and Early Intervention Strategy that are also in development.

We have included radicalisation in this strategy although we recognise that further work is required to detail the priority actions and approach. The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 contains a duty on specified authorities to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism. This is also known as the Prevent duty.

Prevent aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. While it remains rare for children and young people to become involved in terrorist activity, young people from an early age can be exposed to terrorist and extremist influences or prejudiced views. As with other safeguarding strategies, early intervention is always preferable.

A local Prevent programme is already in place. Prevent awareness training has been delivered to over 2000 teachers, governors and support staff in 46 local schools and colleges since January 2016. Nine hundred Year 7 and 9 pupils in local secondary schools participated in Game On counter extremism workshops during 2016/17. LSCB ambition and values

We have been deliberately ambitious in some of our strategic objectives, because we believe that we can prevent children and young people becoming at risk in Lambeth and they should have the very best quality support, help and protection. The strategy has been organised around some key aspirations:

A. **Senior leaders in Lambeth must give the highest possible priority** to preventing, identifying, helping and protecting children and young people who may be at risk, and to disrupting and pursuing those who may be posing a risk to children and young people. The strategy seeks to encompass:

- a strong public health informed focus on prevention and early intervention (including community and school based)
- a needs and risk led approach to offering help and protection to those individual children and young people most at risk
- a robust and determined approach to disrupting and pursuing people who are posing a risk to children
- an expectation that all agencies will take a proactive multi agency approach, across the continuum of need

B. **Strategic and operational practice should be based on sound evidence**, good and shared intelligence, effective data analysis and agreed outcomes for children and young people.

C. **Work with children and young people must be underpinned by clear values:**

- We must never give up on children and young people because they seem reluctant to engage with services, have seemingly intractable problems or seemingly ‘choose’ to put themselves at risk. We must always ‘go the extra mile’.
- We will consistently address the context of children and young people’s lives, including the needs and aspirations of different communities in Lambeth, and taking account of different forms of social prejudice • We will promote relationship and strengths based practice, promoting resilience and good attachments

• We will support family centred intervention (including with siblings when relevant), supporting and not ‘blaming’ parents and carers

• We will give children and young people a voice in shaping services

D. Our approach and daily practice must be relentlessly outcome focussed, and characterised by openness and honesty about what is working well and where improvements need to be secured.

**Governance**

The delivery of the strategy will be overseen by a newly formed Young People at Risk (YPaR) subgroup of the LSCB, replacing the Child Sexual Exploitation subgroup. This new YPaR subgroup will consider risks to the children of Lambeth in a wider context and ensure that there is a more joined up partnership response.

The sub group and LSCB will also work in partnership with the Safer Communities Partnership and the Youth Justice Management Board to ensure our collective efforts are collaborative and effective. Further work needs to be undertaken to detail how these arrangements will be operationalised.

## Priorities and Proposed actions

| Vision | For children and young people to be free from the risks and harm of sexual exploitation, going missing and serious youth violence, and radicalisation | |--------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | **Prevention** | Mapping the universal and early help provision that is available to support children and young people to prevent them becoming at risk. | Support and develop the role of schools, voluntary and faith sector and the wider community in preventing children and young people becoming at risk. | Develop our approaches to identifying siblings, friends and other family members of children and young people at risk who would benefit from additional preventative support | | **Identification** | Increase the capacity and capability to share intelligence and identify children and young people at risk, using mapping and tracking to develop appropriate strategies | Ensure that the referral pathways are clearly understood to ensure children and young people receive the right help at the right time in the right way. | Adopt a proactive and responsive daily tasking approach within the MASH that matches need to the appropriate response | | **Help and Protection** | Remodel the MASE and MARP to ensure it is fit for purpose and effective at managing and reducing risk | Review the use of Risk Assessment Tools and its links with appropriate support pathways | Adopt a ‘whole family’ relationship based approach to supporting children and young people in accordance with good practice principles. | | **Disruption** | Develop a disruption and prosecution strategy based on local and national learning | Develop a strategic overview of the prevalence of CSE, SYV etc. to support effective investigations and prosecutions | Provide guidance and training to key professionals to improve the quality of evidence gathering and recording | Training and development

A comprehensive multi agency training and development plan is being drawn up to address:

- Basic awareness and identification of risk
- Tier 2 and 3 training
- Training for frontline professionals involved in high risk cases
- Support and supervision to practitioners and front line managers

The LSCB conference on 20th October 2017 will launch this strategy and help communication of its purpose and ambitions to a wide group of organisations and individuals in Lambeth.

Conclusion

We have a collective responsibility to make sure that children and young people at risk benefit from effective help and protection.

This strategy sets out the LSCB’s vision and priorities for addressing the complexity of needs of many children and young people in Lambeth who are or could be at risk of a range of ‘contextual’ safeguarding issues. The strategy requires us to work differently and to take very seriously the risks faced by a significant number of children and young people. Perhaps most importantly, it means that we must never give up on these children because their problems and issues seem intractable or because they do not seem to want to engage with services.

The detailed implementation plan which has been drawn up to support delivery of this strategy will be overseen by the LSCB YPaR sub group. It is vital that everyone working with children and young people in Lambeth now contributes to realising the LSCB’s vision, helping to make Lambeth a safer place for children, young people and their families. Further information

If you would like to know more about this Strategy and the work of the LSCB, please visit www.lambethscb.org.uk where you will also find our contact details and further information on our latest activities.

Alternatively, you can write to us at:

Lambeth Safeguarding Children Board 1st Floor Olive Morris House 18 Brixton Hill SW2 1RD

Please note that the LSCB cannot provide advice on safeguarding concerns.

To report abuse or discuss a concern call the First Response Team on 020 7926 5555.

Alternatively, you can report a concern anonymously online at any time.